Youtube to introduce paid music subscription; Google adds handwriting support on Gmail and Drive; Vine adds new features

Google’s video arm, Youtube is expected to introduce a paid music subscription service soon, to compete with the sites like Spotify and Rdio.

According to Billboard, Youtube’s on-demand music service will be launched later this year and is expected to cost around USD 10 a month.

The service will have a free component and a premium tier which will provide users with access to a full catalog of tracks similar to what’s already available via YouTube’s parent company, Google Inc., via its all access subscription music service.

“We’re always working on new and better ways for people to enjoy YouTube content across all screens, and on giving partners more opportunities to reach their fans.. However, we have nothing to announce at this time,” said Youtube in a statement.

Though there are various others like Spotify, Pandora and iTunes Radio who are offering paid music service, but YouTube’s added video content will definitely make it stand out.

Google adds handwriting support on Gmail and Drive

Search giant, Google has recently added a new handwriting feature for Gmail and Google Docs. This will allow users to hand write their emails and documents using computer mouse or trackpad.

To enable the handwriting, users need to enable input tools in Gmail or Docs, for this click the gear icon in the top right, select settings. Then in the General tab, select the checkbox next to “Enable input tools” under the “Language” section. There users can add the handwriting tool. Then click “OK” and “Save Changes.”

“Handwriting input makes the internet easier to use by people worldwide and is also part of a larger effort to break the barrier between languages,” said Google.

Currently, handwriting input is available in Google Docs for over 20 languages and in Gmail for over 50 languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Hindi and Russian.

Vine adds video editing options, and an ability to save videos in drafts

Twitter’s video looping app Vine, which allows users to create short, beautiful, looping videos and share them, has recently added new features to the Vine camera: Sessions and Time Travel. The new features will allow users to maintain multiple posts in progress over time and edit posts before sharing them.

With Time Travel users can remove, reorganize or replace any shot within a post before sharing it. Edits can be made either while shooting the video and while previewing it. Whereas the Session feature will allow users to work on up to ten posts at once, thus they can now easily save a new session or open an existing one.